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65 



NOT IN THE CURRICULUM 



Not in the Curriculum 

A Book of Friendly Counsel 
TO Students 



By 

Two Recent College Graduates 



With an Introduction by 
Henry van Dyke 







New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H, Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1903, by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

(maech) 



LIBRaKY of CONCsPeSS 
Two Copies Received 

APR 4 1904 

Copyright Ewtry 
CLASS ft- KXo. No. 



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New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 6^ Washington Street 
Toronto: 27 Richmond Street, W 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 30 St. Mary Street 



ro 

WOODROW WILSONy 

President of Princeton University y 

in 

Grateful Appreciation 

of Many Things 

Not in the Curriculum 

Learned from His Lips 

and His Life 



Contents 

* Introduction ...... 9 

I. *How TO Begin 17 

II. .Relations to Fellows ... 22 

III. Friends 25 

IV. Study 30 

V. Athletics 34 

VI. 'Ideals 38 

VII. Disposal of Time .... 43 

VIII. • How TO be Popular .... 46 

IX. 'Use of Money 48 

X. Self Help 51 

XI. Conversation 54 

XII. Exercise 57 

XIII. Relations to Your College . 59 

XIV. Practical Christianity . . 62 

XV. Purity 65 

XVI. Dealing with Doubt ... 68 

XVII. A Word as to Drunkenness . 84 

XVIII. Profanity 86 

XIX. The Bible in College Life . 89 

7 



Introduction 

This book has been made by two 
young men whose college life I have 
had an opportunity to know, and who 
have taken me into their friendly counsels. 
They were men who did not neglect the 
curriculum. They did the work which 
was set for them in the courses of study, 
with serious industry and faithful en- 
deavor, and with success according to 
their different gifts. But meantime they 
were living with vigor and with joy, 
cultivating friendships with their com- 
rades, entering into the varied activities 
of the college world, developing physi- 
cally and socially as well as mentally, 
and getting the best that academic life 
has to offer. They did not stand apart 
in any sense, but they made their mark, 
quite naturally, by cheerful integrity and 
straightforwardness and all-round man- 

9 



lo Introduction 

hood. This much I take the liberty to 
say (without their knowledge or con- 
sent), because the value of a book like 
this depends a good deal on what lies 
behind it. 

It seems to me that the book must do 
good to other young men because it is 
genuine. It has grown out of real ex- 
perience and good work. This is what 
students need and like. 

The boy who goes away from home 
to get an education has a serious prob- 
lem to face. The question is not merely 
how shall he become a man, but what 
kind of a man shall he become? His 
training in certain liberal arts and exact 
sciences is important. If he shirks it, 
he turns his back on his first duty; and 
the failure here is very likely to give a 
lazy and shifty quality to his whole char- 
acter. But the finest of the arts is the 
art of living, and the highest of the 
sciences is the science of conduct. The 
true success of student-life does not lie 
in the attainment of scholarship alone, 
but in the unfolding of an intelligent, 



Introduction 1 1 

upright, fearless, reverent, kind, and 
happy manhood, ready and glad to do 
good service in the world. 

It is for this that schools and colleges 
are founded. It is for this that they are 
supported by the commonwealth, and 
generously endowed by private bene- 
factors. It is for this that fathers and 
mothers make great and willing sacri- 
fices to give their boys an education. It 
is for this that the boys are set free from 
the necessity of earning their living in 
order that they may give their time and 
strength to learning how to live more 
largely and nobly and efficiently. And 
even if some of them help to *'work 
their way " through college, still more is 
given to them in the shape of privileges 
and opportunities than they can possibly 
pay for, just because the community 
thinks it is well worth while to make an 
investment in boys for the sake of get- 
ting a dividend in men. 

Every honest student is responsible for 
seeing to it that his part in this dividend 
is not passed. He must try to come out 



12 Introduction 

of school and college worth more to the 
world than when he went in. In order 
to accomplish this he should get as much 
as his capacity will take from all sides 
of the academic life, mental discipline, 
training in expression, general culture, 
intercourse with equals and with superi- 
ors, good fellowship, and athletic games. 
And through it all he must be steadily 
learning how to obey in order that he 
may be fit to command, how to study in 
order that he may be fit to teach, how to 
develop his own personality in order that 
he may serve others with the best that is 
in him. 

Of course he will need guidance. He 
must have ideals. He can hardly get on 
without some kind of rules. Some of 
the best of these are made on the field, 
in the familiar *'give and take" of stu- 
dent-life. That is the nature of the 
counsels which are set down in this 
book. They are not artificial nor im- 
ported. They are native to the college 
world. And behind them, not con- 
cealed, nor obtruded, but frankly ac- 



Introduction 13 

fenowledged, lies a sincere faith in plain 
Christianity as a guiding principle of 
conduct, a moulding force of character, 
a cheering influence in life, and an in- 
spiration to high and unselfish ambitions. 

Here is no theorizing, no speculation, 
no guessing at things beyond the hori- 
zon, no laying down of abstract and im- 
possible rules, no fumbling with uncer- 
tain questions. Here is nothing but a 
straightforward effort to translate certain 
broad and simple truths into the some- 
what free vernacular of the undergradu- 
ate, for practical use. 

The advice given in this book comes 
from the standpoint of two fellows who 
are in the game, though they have had a 
little longer experience in playing it than 
the other men. They do not speak ex 
cathedra ; they speak as comrades talk- 
ing to an under-classman, and telling 
him, in a general way, what he would 
better do if he wants to make his stu- 
dent-life move straight to the mark. 

How to find your own place among 
your fellows when you enter; how to 



14 Introduction 

avoid thinking of yourself too much, or 
more highly than you ought to think; 
how to learn the a b c oi altruism by 
working for the welfare and honor of 
your college instead of for your own sel- 
fish interests; how to live cleanly, and 
grow strong in body and mind, and 
harmonize work with play, and keep a 
serious purpose in a cheerful existence; 
how to sympathize with your comrades 
without losing your independence of 
judgment and integrity of principle; how 
to make your personal influence, large or 
small, count for purity, and honesty, and 
kindness, and manliness, in the general 
life of the college; how to keep a firm 
hold on the vital faith, and a close con- 
tact with the spiritual realities, without 
which you can hardly live steadily, hope- 
fully, happily, and unselfishly, — these 
are the questions which a college student 
has to meet. And these questions are 
dealt with, very simply, in this little 
volume. 

The first draft of it was made by a 
man who after leaving college went to 



Introduction 15 

work in a foreign land. He sent the 
manuscript home to his friend, who has 
edited it, and has added chapters xvi-xix, 
and some of the longer paragraphs in 
other chapters (in all about one-third of 
the book), growing directly out of the 
work which he has been doing here. 

I commend the book heartily to the 
readers for whom it is intended: the 
older boys in the secondary schools, and 
the men in the colleges and universities 
of America, among whom I am thankful 
to be a minister. 

Henry van Dyke. 

Avalottf Jan. 8, igo4. 



HOW TO BEGIN 

Realize at the start that your class will 
divide itself in time into those who fol- 
low and those who lead. The former 
are unfortunately much too numerous. 
They are characterized as good *' fel- 
lows," seldom as men. Their character 
and conduct depend largely on the 
'* crowd they travel with " and the com- 
pany in which they are. They let other 
men do their thinking for them and accept 
the ideas of these men without examining 
them for their worth. The men who 
lead, do so because they have a positive 
forcefulness about them. They may 
lead through ability; they may lead be- 
cause of personality. They may lead 
not at all officially, but by virtue of their 
convictions and their adherence to them 
they are recognized as leaders. Which 
sort of a man is it preferable to be? 
17 



l8 Not in the Curriculum 

Would you rather assert your independ- 
ence and stand alone when necessary or 
be one who always does what the 
crowd does ? 

There is much in college life for you 
to learn; keep your eyes open and your 
mouth shut. 

Have carefully thought-out ideas of 
right and wrong and stand by them. 
Do not condemn others who have en- 
tirely different ideas. 

Be open to the new ideas and impres- 
sions which association with your fellows 
will naturally bring, but do not be de- 
ceived by the careless exteriors of these 
fellows. Gold is found in the bed of the 
stream, not floating along with the 
ripples of its surface. 

Conform easily to harmless customs. 
Doing so will bring you quickly into 
touch with college life and what is even 
more worthy of consideration, it will 
develop in you that ready adaptability to 
surroundings which is so important an 
element of a man's success in life. 

Do not overthrow all existing standards 



How to Begin 19 

until the college has had time to find out 
that you are in it. Most of these stand- 
ards are the result of a long process of 
evolution and it is often rather dangerous 
for a freshman to undertake to change 
them. 

Don't be too generous with the history 
of your past. 

Begin with the end in mind. The 
tape is necessary for the runner before he 
responds to the ** get set " of the starter. 
The goal line must be fixed for the foot- 
ball player before the whistle blows for 
the first ** kick-off." Know what you 
want to do while in college just as soon 
as possible and then begin your game in 
earnest. Remember that before the tape 
is reached or the goal line crossed your 
peculiar merits will have ample time to 
disclose themselves. Let others talk 
about them. 

When the end is reached you will 
stand before your fellows for just about 
what you are. It is worth while trying 
to make and keep yourself worthy of their 
esteem, for your place in the hearts of 



20 Not in the Curriculum 

your fellows and your influence over 
their lives in senior year may well meas- 
ure the success or failure of your college 
course. That place and influence is the 
result of inward worth and not, as some- 
times appears, of an apparent popularity. 
Do not be misled into thinking that the 
men who seem to be leaders in the life of 
your class in freshman year will be re- 
membered in your class history as its true 
leaders. You will find them usually in 
very unimportant positions in both the 
class life and their classmates' estimation 
by senior year, if they have not previously 
fallen by the wayside. Frequently these 
men do not endure through the four years 
but give up college. They are like those 
over-confident runners who start out on 
a long distance race at a rapid pace and 
gradually find themselves being passed 
by those who ran more modestly at first 
and, if they finish at all, they cross the 
line a poor last. The leaders of your 
class in its senior year will be those who 
have been tested in the four years of inti- 
mate association and have been proved 



How to Begin 2 1 

worthy; not those whose preparatory 
school reputation or winning manners 
have exalted on first sight, who, when 
weighed in the balance of college life, 
have been found wanting. 

You are but one among many; yet 
realize that one man by quiet, sensible, 
persistent striving can change the whole 
tone of a class or university. 

"Do something and do that something 
well." 

"The way to do a thing is to do it. 
The way to begin to do a thing is to 
begin." 



II 

RELATIONS TO FELLOWS 

An important factor of a liberal educa- 
tion is the development of a man's in- 
clination and ability to understand, sym- 
pathize with, and work alongside of other 
men of different habits, tastes and ideals 
than his. 

As the result of whatever purpose or 
chance you find yourself in college, it 
will still be your best move to know the 
fellows around you as quickly and as 
well as possible. That is one of the 
chances offered by college life which no 
man can afford to miss. You can learn 
many of life's most important lessons by 
making a thoughtful study of the lives 
of your mates. 

In thinking or speaking of any of your 
fellows look for the good, not the evil. 

In your choice of friends take every 

22 



Relations to Fellows 23 

man for his personal worth; never mind 
his name. 

Be wise enough and unselfish enough 
to work to advance other interests rather 
than your own. 

Choose your own path and plan of 
action and then use them. Give others 
the same liberty which you demand for 
yourself. 

Be charitable towards weakness. Re- 
member that charity is a larger term 
than pity; love the man — hate his evil 
ways. 

Consider a man's motives before you 
condemn his actions. 

Whatever else you do, avoid " Knock- 
ers' sessions." Any fool can find fault 
with anything. Make it your rule to 
criticise only where you can point out 
some means of improvement. 

Be especially careful to deal justly and 
charitably towards any man against 
whom you happen to have a personal 
prejudice. 

Be sincere and unaffected in all your 
dealings. 



24 Not in the Curriculum 

Respect every man's opinion but act 
on your own. 

** Let no man despise thee " — not even 
thyself. 

" This above all, to thine own self be true. 
And it must follow as the night the day. 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 



Ill 

FRIENDS 

True friendship is always founded on 
respect. Respect can exist without 
friendship but between true friends there 
is always a relation of respect. The re- 
lationship of clubs or fraternities how- 
ever close and however conducive to 
mutual understanding, can never take the 
place of respect. One eminent writer on 
this subject has said that the basis of 
friendship must be community of soul. 
Those friendships which are formed for 
the basest purposes or grow out of bad 
practices are held together through re- 
spect. Two gamblers are friends not 
because they gamble but because in their 
gambling each trusts the other to play 
fair. It is this sense of honor even in 
wicked deeds that preserves the friend- 
ship; as soon as one is caught cheating 
25 



26 Not in the Curriculum 

the other the friendship is at an end. If 
you want the best friends, do the things 
and be the kind of a man that the best 
men respect. 

" A friend loveth at all times." 

Perhaps no other place on earth is so 
well fitted for making lasting friendships 
as is a college. The man who is grad- 
uated without having made at least a few 
friends has missed one of his greatest op- 
portunities and lost one of his chief 
sources of satisfaction in looking back 
over his college course. 

Be sincere. 

Surround yourself with true friends by 
being a true friend. 

Prove your friendship for a man by 
tactfully pointing out the mistakes which 
every one else can see he is making. 
Those who reprove us kindly are our 
best friends; faithful are the wounds of a 
friend. 

The highest friendship can exist only 
in an- unselfish heart. 



Friends 27 

Be true to your friends in thought, 
word, and action. 

You do not need to agree with them 
on all subjects. 

Give them their right to their opinion 
and maintain your right to hold your 
own. 

Follow suit on their good leads — 
throw off on the bad ones. 

Help them to be worthy of positions of 
influence and honor — whether they 
occupy the positions or not is a minor 
matter. 

Look upon their lives in the light of 
their possibilities as well as their actual- 
ities. 

" Those friends thou hast and their adoption tried, 
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel." 

" If meat cause thy friend to stumble, 
eat no meat." He is worth that much self- 
denial (even though it cost you your oc- 
casional glass of wine or mug of beer). 

Friendship is one of the few things 
which is universally admired. It has 
stood the test of time and is still as ad- 



28 Not in the Curriculum 

mirable as in the days of David and Jon- 
athan. Some of the finest characters of 
history show themselves to the best ad- 
vantage in their friendships. It has re- 
ceived the praise of writers of all creeds 
and nationalities. Some of the finest 
compositions in the sphere of moral 
philosophy have had this for their theme, 
as, for example, Cicero's and Emerson's 
and Tennyson's. It serves alike as a 
means of strength and a standard of 
judgment. Friendship is one of the 
most important and strongest influences 
in any life. How important a matter the 
choosing of friends is! 

One of Washington's maxims was: 
*' Be courteous to all, but intimate with 
few, and let them be well tried before 
you give them your confidence." 

Perhaps there is no better place than 
college for encouraging the "Higher 
Friendship." "There is a love which 
passeth the love of women, passeth all 
earthly love, the love of God to the 
weary, starved heart of man. We were 
born for the love of God; if we do not 



Friends 29 

find it, it were better for us if we had 
never been born. To us, in our place in 
history, communion with God comes 
through Jesus Christ. It is an ineffable 
mystery, but it is still a fact of expe- 
rience. . . . We offer Christ the sub- 
mission of our hearts, and the obedience 
of our lives ; and He offers us His abiding 
presence. ' I call you no longer serv- 
ants,' He said to His disciples, 'but I 
have called you friends.' . . . * Ye are 
My friends if ye do whatsoever I com- 
mand you.' " — Hugh Black, 



IV 
STUDY 

If you are at all lazy or desirous of 
avoiding unnecessary work and worry, 
do good, hard, faithful work while in 
college. As the Germans say, "If you 
would make your life easy, make it 
hard." The idea which some college men 
get that study is a disgrace and a nuisance 
is not only idiotic but also most danger- 
ous. Bone and muscle will not develop 
without regular food and exercise and no 
more will brain and intellect. 

If you want to live a life without 
brains, without influence, and without 
satisfaction or reward, do not study to 
train your mind. If you do not care to 
live that kind of life, then be sure that 
you cannot escape a reasonable amount 
of study. 

Don't be ashamed to be caught in the 
act. 

30 



Study 31 

Study regularly and you can study 
less. 

It is better to study one hour before an 
examination than two after it. 

Find some subject or subjects which 
you can study because you like them. 
The best results come from voluntary 
work. 

You may think it is better to know 
your associates rather than your books. 
There is no law against knowing both. 

Learn how to study and that will teach 
you some other things. 

Study to master your subject rather 
than to pass an examination and the ex- 
amination will lose much of its terror. 

The more you shirk work in prepara- 
tory school the harder you will be obliged 
to work in college. The less work you 
do in college the more work you are 
storing up for yourself when you enter 
professional or business life. Get your 
mind well trained at the very start and it 
will save you a heap of trouble all along 
the line. The man who has learned to 
concentrate his mind on what he is doing 



32 Not in the Curriculum 

accomplishes twice as much as other men 
and in half the time. Work while you 
work. 

"Study to show yourself approved 
unto God, a workman that needeth not to 
be ashamed." 

While in college, read a great deal; 
not too much in any one branch of litera- 
ture, but extensively, familiarizing your- 
self with writings of all kinds. Don't 
put too much time on books whose value 
is transitory. Read solid books, books 
whose value is permanent through all 
time. But read so that you will leave 
college familiar with the best that has 
been written in the English language. 
*' Reading maketh a full man." 

A man of culture must be well-read. 
Cultivate a taste for that which is best in 
prose and poetry. 

Don't read literature which poisons the 
mind or stimulates an impure imagina- 
tion. You don't have to learn all the 
filthy details of vice to hate it. You don't 
have to immerse yourself in a cesspool 
to appreciate its pollution. Don't be 



Study 33 

afraid to be ignorant of some things. 
You will learn enough of wickedness in 
your life in spite of yourself without pur- 
posely investigating it. 



V 

ATHLETICS 

Men too often get the idea that when 
they have had a share in winning a "big 
game " they can have and can do any- 
thing they like. Public opinion may be 
lenient with the victorious college athlete 
but the inward satisfaction which comes 
from self-control, which comes from 
being man from start to finish whatever 
else happens, is of much greater value 
than any public leniency. 

The college team and the college crowd 
which can carry with it through victory 
or defeat the true sporting spirit of give 
and take, fair play under all circumstances, 
courteous treatment of all visitors, and 
the belief that the moment never comes 
when a man has any right, whatever his 
feelings, to be anything but a gentleman, 
is the one most likely to play a hard game 
and show real college spirit. 
34 



Athletics 35* 

A good physique is good capital. 

Make a quiet try for some team. 

If you are in training — train. Even 
though you are the last substitute on the 
second team, it is up to you to train as 
strictly as though you were captain of the 
first. 

Use all the brains at your disposal — 
there'll be plenty of chance. 

If you are told to do a certain thing in 
a certain way, reason out why. (But 
don't stop to reason before you do as 
you are told.) 

When you are in a game you must 
think quickly if at all — not easy but prac- 
tice makes possible. 

A good physique plus a good head are 
admired the world over. The best ath- 
lete must develop both. 

If the coach insists in something which 
is hard for you, practice it until it is 
entirely natural. 

If you go into a game at all, go in soul 
and body. 

Follow every play to the very end. 

If you play your game you will have 



36 Not in the Curriculum 

no room for thought of self or grand- 
stand. 

Every one either despises or pities a 
" swelled head " — no matter who wears 
it. 

Better break your neck than show a 
"streak of yellow." 

Be a gentleman always — but one who 
is hard to tackle or catch between bases. 

If you have the privilege of represent- 
ing your university, she has a perfect 
right to demand that you do your best. 

Make her feel that you are doing your 
very best and she'll be proud of you — 
win or lose. 

For one man on a team to " quit" for 
the fraction of a second is worse than for 
that team to lose a championship game. 

Victory is often harder to carry than 
defeat. You may win every one's respect 
for yourself and for your college by the 
way you have won a game only to lose 
it by the way you conduct yourself after- 
wards. 

** Breaking training" at the close of 
the season does not involve breaking a 



Athletics 



37 



single one of your moral or religious 
principles. 

If you are man enough to make a 
team, be man enough to stand on your 
own feet with regard to right and wrong. 

A man may be a good athlete, a sin- 
cere Christian and a perfect gentleman; 
— yes, and he ought to be. Such men 
are in demand in college and out. 

A man who is an athletic **star," but 
intellectually a loafer, and morally a 
profligate, is a pitiable character. It is 
sad to see a man, who has enough man- 
liness about him to distinguish himself in 
athletic contests, perfectly indifferent to 
any intellectual or literary attainments or 
indifferent to the beauty of a true, manly 
character. It makes matters worse to re- 
member how strong such a man's in- 
fluence is on his weaker companions and 
fellows. We are glad that this species 
is dying off and becoming rarer. How 
fine it is to see supplanting it that of the 
athletic man of culture and Christian 
character! 



VI 

IDEALS 

An ideal is that fixed purpose by which 
from time to time you can square your 
life. 

Some fellows are content to launch out 
on the college stream and then drift aim- 
lessly along until it carries them out into 
the open sea of life. They train neither 
brain nor muscles and as a result find 
themselves helpless in the rough weather 
every man must expect to encounter 
sooner or later. Others, who are wiser, 
prefer to guide their course according to 
some definite purpose and thereby gain 
valuable information and strength of 
character as they go. 

Have at least one worthy ideal. 

Place it as high as you can see. 

Go after it in dead earnest. 

You may never reach it. 
38 



Ideals 39 

Again you may. What matters it ? 
It has served its purpose if it has spurred 
you on and on, if it has kept you pro- 
gressing steadily. 

The hard try will prevent stagnation. 

It will also develop your natural 
ability. 

The lack of an ideal has caused many 
comparative failures. 

Its possession has often won well de- 
served fame. 

Almost every page of biography swears 
that the above are facts. 

Be not afraid of making your aim too 
high — even aim to fit yourself for the 
presidency of the United States — if you 
so desire. A " strenuous life " has been 
known to get men there. 

Make your ideals as definite as possi- 
ble and then begin to work steadily to- 
wards them. 

Even twenty-story buildings must go 
up one stone at a time. If then you re- 
solve to be the greatest statesman of 
your time begin by making yourself the 
best debater in your college. 



40 Not in the Curriculum 

" Heaven is not reached at a single bound. 
We build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
And climb to its summit round by round." 

Let your efforts and not your words 
tell others that you have ideals. Don't 
enlarge the size of your hat until you 
have attained to some of them. 

The ideal does not make the great 
man — the hard striving after it often 
does — for *' great men are made, not 
born." 

The world has never offered a more 
enticing field for the truly great than at 
the present time. 

Search out some of the ideals which 
have been useful to other men and learn 
by heart the story which they will 
tell. 

At every stage of your progress in 
life keep your head balanced by being 
able to say "1 count not myself to have 
attained but this one thing I do — forget- 
ting those things which are behind; and 
reaching forth unto those things that are 
before, I press forward towards the 



Ideals 41 

prize of my high calling " — whatever it 
may be. 

Remember that **The spirit that does 
not soar will often grovel." 

Recognize two things as you seek to 
develop your character. One is the im- 
portance of proper surroundings — your 
environment; the other is the necessity 
of practice. If you wish to become a 
perfect or even an excellent swimmer, 
you do not go out in the country and run 
or climb mountains. You go into the 
water where you have the proper envi- 
ronment for swimming. And it is not 
enough for you to put yourself in the 
proper relation to the water if you would 
learn to swim. You must do more; you 
must strike out and practice, practice 
continually. So it is with the building 
up of your character. First put yourself 
in range of those influences which make 
for righteousness — the influences of the 
church, good companionship, a com- 
munity where God is reverenced and 
obeyed, good, strong, wholesome books, 
fine men who can instruct you and 



42 Not in the Curriculum 

whom you can imitate, and other things 
of similar character; and when you have 
chosen your proper environment and ad- 
justed yourself to it, your next duty is to 
practice what you are told. Work out 
in your own life the principles which un- 
derlie all these things. Environment is 
essential. Practice is necessary. Each 
is incomplete without the other. " Abide 
in Me and I in you; as a branch cannot 
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the 
vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in 
Me." ** Work out your own salvation." 



VII 
DISPOSAL OF TIME 

Time is like money. When well spent 
it yields a fair return and gives satisfac- 
tion and enjoyment; when misspent it 
gives rise to general dissatisfaction and 
unrest. The man then who does not 
know enough to get a fair return for his 
time and his money is quite sure to be 
discontented with himself and every one 
else. 

Time must be used in order to be en- 
joyed ; therefore keep busy. Don't loaf. 
Do just as much as you can do well. 

Don't spend all of your time with a 
few intimate friends but get into sym- 
pathy with many of your fellows. 
Every one of them has some special 
thing which he can teach you. 

Make time for a just amount of regular 
exercise, study, reading, thinking, col- 
43 



44 Not in the Curriculum 

lege activities, etc., and thus avoid the 
danger of a one-sided development. 

Don't try to kill time — it is far too val- 
uable a possession. 

The man who owns a gold mine is a 
fool not to work it. 

Cut out gambling — you either have no 
college spirit or else you have a mighty 
poor opinion of your own capabilities if 
you spend a moment of even freshman 
year in that way. If you must have ex- 
citement find some more original way of 
getting it. 

It takes time to do anything well — 
" what is worth doing is worth doing 
well." 

If you find yourself crowded, try a 
careful systematization of your time. 
Be sure to " place first things first." 

Don't kick about compulsory chapel 
until it ceases to get you out of bed in 
the morning. 

Take pride in the hard, consistent, 
straightforward and uncompromising ef- 
fort which has been stamped as "the 
strenuous life." 



Disposal of Time 45 

Spend at least a few hours of every 
year in trying to reason out the pur- 
pose of human life in general and your 
own in particular. Doing so may teach 
you that faith in a personal God is 
based on sound reason and give you a 
hint of the place which that faith ought 
to occupy in your life. 

Live in the present with a watchful 
eye on the future. 

''You will never find time for any- 
thing — if you want time you must make 
it." 



VIII 
HOW TO BE POPULAR 

The desire to stand well among one's 
fellows is natural and, when properly 
regulated, profitable. The extent of a 
man's popularity often depends on some 
natural endowment; but no man need 
be unpopular and no special natural en- 
dowment is necessary for a man to make 
himself extremely popular. 

If you would be popular do not try to 
be. Forget all about yourself for four 
years and you may wake up to find 
yourself popular. 

Deserve popularity and you generally 
get it. 

Respect is the highest form of popular- 
ity. Don't confuse it with toleration. 

Popularity means power — power 
means responsibility. 

Popularity is never founded on mental 
or moral weakness. 
46 



How to be Popular 47 

Charity, cheerfulness, sympathy, un- 
selfishness, good sense and action are 
some of the ingredients of popularity. 

See and respect the good points in all 
other men. 

To the best of your ability, as op- 
portunity offers, help every one of your 
fellows into a clearer understanding of 
the possibilities of his own life. 

Let the best interests of your friends, 
your class, and your university take pos- 
session of your life. 

Don't continually thrust yourself be- 
fore other men's eyes, but make a place 
for yourself in their hearts. 

It is better to be right than popular— 
but unpopularity is far from a sure sign 
of being right. 



IX 

USE OF MONEY 

Enough money is a fine thing to have, 
but an extra or unlimited supply makes a 
hard proposition for the average college 
man to solve. Unless used with rare 
good judgment it often defeats the very 
aim for which it is lavishly spent. Not 
a few college men lose the respect of all 
their fellows by reason of what they do 
or attempt to do with their money. 

Do not try to create an impression by 
the amount of money you have at your 
disposal. There may be others who 
have as much, and the impression which 
you create may be that you are more fool 
than rich man. 

Do not set your standard of expendi- 
ture according to the amount of money 
some other man has. If your parents do 
not see fit to provide you with the funds 
for the pace at which you would like to 
48 



Use of Money 49 

travel, do not borrow the money and 
take it anyway, but quietly drop out and 
cultivate some of the fellows whom you 
will find taking a slower pace. You are 
quite likely to discover some long distance 
prize winners among them. 

If you must have money, get busy 
and make it. If you do not need it, give 
the other fellow, who does, your chance. 
It is a fine thing to be able to set a fellow 
of less experience than yourself on his 
feet just when he needs encouragement. 
He won't forget it. 

Don't spend a lot of money which you 
haven't gotten with the idea that you 
will square yourself by the lucky bet on 
a coming game. It isn't generous to let 
some other man of another college pay 
your honest debts and, what is also to the 
point, the game does not always turn 
out just as you think it will. 

Money cannot buy respect. It can 
cause the loss of it. 

Money may possibly buy you a place 
in some club or society, but, if so, the 
place is not worth having. 



50 Not in the Curriculum 

By his use of money a fool is sure to 
disclose himself. 

You won't lose any great amount of 
respect by a regular payment of your 
debts. 

One part good sense and one part 
money make a practical mixture (for all 
practical purposes). 

Money is stored up energy — so is 
nitro-glycerine. 

" You will never be extravagant if you 
get your money's worth for what you 
spend and do not spend more than you 
have." 

In thinking of a life work, pray that 
brains enough may be given you so that 
you will not be obliged to devote all of 
your time, thought, and energy to the 
acquisition of money. At the same time 
be not afraid to work for what you 
have. Political economists hate a "non- 
producer." 

The lack of money is a handicap and 
nothing of which to be proud. 

You can't buy true friends. Life will 
turn bitter without them. 



X 

SELF HELP 

The fact that you are poor and obliged 
to make your own money is no reason 
why you should look upon yourself as a 
martyr. And the fact that many poor 
men have become great is no reason why 
you should deem yourself on the straight 
road to greatness. You are in your pres- 
ent position as the result of some one's 
misfortune or mismanagement. Face 
your position sensibly at the very start 
and so save yourself the blunder of a too 
exalted idea of the honor due you and 
the equally dangerous one of thinking 
that every man who has plenty of money 
at his disposal looks down on you be- 
cause you are obliged to work for what 
you have. 

Lack of money means some restrictions 
and added work, but it also means busi- 
ness training and sharpened wits. 
SI 



^2 Not in the Curriculum 

Every man who "splits rails" will not 
necessarily be a president (even of a lum- 
ber company). Give up reading prize 
essays on self-made men and face a plain 
business proposition as such. You want 
to possess a college education — for cap- 
ital you have what God has given you 
(and what you have not destroyed) of 
brains, health, and time. 

Make your own opportunities. 

Enjoy life while you work. You can't 
afford to be "sour-balled." 

If you do not stand well with your fel- 
lows, do not try to console yourself with 
the thought that it is because you are 
poor. Look for the trouble in your per- 
sonality and character where it really 
lies. Any dearth of common interest 
with other men is more often your fault 
than theirs. 

"Cheerfulness and perseverance^ are 
nine-tenths of success." 

"Seest thou a man diligent in his busi- 
ness ? He shall stand before kings." 

When you hear or read about some 
boy who has worked his way from pov- 



Self Help 53 

erty to a position of prominence and in- 
fluence, should it not suggest to you, 
who have enough money to keep you 
from worrying about your livelihood, 
how much greater your chance for suc- 
cess is? Think of the advantages that 
are yours that the poor fellow lacks. 
See to it that your money helps you 
rather than proves a hindrance to you. 
*'A little learning" and ''too much 
money " are both dangerous things ; 
many college men have both. 



XI 

CONVERSATION 

Do not mistake an automatic talking 
machine for a good conversationalist. 

Be natural in your conversation, as in 
all else, but make use of it to enlarge 
your command of simple, forcible Eng- 
lish. 

Don't cultivate an "accent" nor use 
words intended to attract attention. 

College slang expresses much in few 
words but it is not intelligible outside of 
college circles — avoid the wholesale use 
of it for the reason that it destroys much 
of your workable vocabulary. 

Profanity may not trouble your con- 
science, but even so be assured that it is 
not one of the distinctive properties of a 
gentleman. 

Don't confuse profane ''Bravado" 
with nerve. The man of real nerve is 
54 



Conversation ^^ 

the man who can keep his mouth 
shut, but who is always there when 
needed. 

Note the topics of conversation among 
your clubmates during a single meal. 
Acknowledge that they can generally be 
improved without any loss of interest or 
good fellowship. 

You will never make a friend nor gain 
an ounce of respect by foul talk. 

However much of a sewer your life 
may be, kindly refrain from opening it 
up to public view. 

Don't be afraid to talk about anything 
which you are dead sure ought to be 
brought to pass, just because doing so 
may not be the most popular thing. 

Be careful, however, how you talk 
about things which may be good but 
which you personally don't endorse with 
your life, lest your fellows call you a hypo- 
crite for not practicing what you preach. 
Don't preach big things in a self-assertive 
way if you don't intend to try your best 
to live up to them. 

In both your conversation and your 



56 Not in the Curriculum 

actions do not hesitate to stand up for 
what you honestly believe to be right. 

Remember the admonition of One 
who spoke with authority, "But I say 
unto you that every idle word that men 
shall speak they shall give account 
thereof." 



XH 
EXERCISE 

Regular exercise and plenty of it is 
essential for the moral and physical de- 
velopment of a college man. 

The resolve to take exercise, even 
though renewed every fortnight, will not 
take the place of the regular hour in the 
gymnasium. 

If you stand to some of your class- 
mates as a sick child to strong, healthy 
men, then go to work and see what good 
sense and consistent training can do for 
you. 

If you wish to see any results from 
your exercise, do not handicap yourself 
with habits which would not be allowed 
if you were making a try for any athletic 
team. 

Choose some form of exercise which 
you can take as a pleasure rather than as 
a duty. 

57 



58 Not in the Curriculum 

Aim for general development first; 
prominence along particular lines may or 
may not follow. 

You may hire another man to do some 
of your studying for you and still pass 
your examination, but you must take 
your own exercise or suffer from the lack 
of it. 

Knowledge, usefulness, success and 
happiness are all dependent on health. 
Exercise and good habits are health's 
best friends. Don't be so foolish as to 
neglect them or let other things crowd 
them out of your life. 



XIII 
RELATIONS TO YOUR COLLEGE 

Your college is just what you and your 
fellows make her. 

Keep her standard high. 

Do not criticise her failings but work 
to remedy them. 

Give her some return for all she gives 
you. If she provides you with the op- 
portunities and influences suitable to 
manly development of character and in- 
tellect, she has a right to expect you to 
make good use of them. 

Do not be blatantly telling outsiders 
what a fine college yours is, but give 
them a chance to see what fine material 
she turns out in the way of men. 

Support her teams but do not bet on 
them; do not place your fellows in the 
category of race-horses or game cocks. 

The college gives you her name; be 
ashamed to disgrace it. 
59 



6o Not in the Curriculum 

Do not talk about college spirit and 
then continually act in a way which 
shows that you do not know even what 
it means. You could as consistently 
boast of family honor while in the act of 
disgracing the family name. True col- 
lege spirit is a fme thing to have, but its 
roots must find nourishment deep down 
in a man's better self. 

Remember that all members of visiting 
teams are your guests and at all times 
and under all conditions treat them as 
such. 

Never be ashamed to confess your 
Alma Mater and never do a thing for 
which she can rightly be ashamed of you. 

While still a freshman do not be con- 
ceited enough to think that your college 
will be benefited by your telling every 
one through act or apparel that you rep- 
resent her. And when you become an 
alumnus remember that we do not go 
back to mother and the old home to cele- 
brate in excesses which savor of club 
or bar-room, and especially when the 
** kids " and mother's friends are all there. 



Relations to Your College 61 

The men who are most prominent in 
the world and who have the interest of 
their Alma Mater most at heart are not 
the ones who make themselves most 
conspicuous when they return to visit 
her. Don't let appearances deceive you. 

Sense, sincerity, simplicity — the col- 
lege man's " Three Graces." 



XIV 
PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY 

Real Christianity is practical. 

" What you are speaks so loud that I 
cannot hear what you say." 

Make it your motto to love your fel- 
lows. Act so that you will not be 
obliged to tell them of that love. 

Be sincere, be natural, be happy. 

Say what you believe, but no more. 

Use a cool head, good sense and a 
warm heart. Sometimes our inspira- 
tions go to our heads instead of to our 
hearts and we become intoxicated by 
enthusiasm rather than strengthened by 
it. 

Use charity in all things. 

Shed your false piety skin and come 
out for just what you are. 

Work out your own ideas of Chris- 
tianity — Christ's life is the only authori- 
tative text-book. 

62 



Practical Christianity 63 

Never be ashamed of the fact that you 
have given this subject careful thought 
and that you know where you stand 
with regard to it. If you have not done 
so make yourself give a plain answer to 
the question — Why ? 

Make others think — help them think, 
but let them draw their own conclusions. 

Hunt out the lovable in every one and 
be ready to call attention to that rather 
than to the disagreeable. 

Reform by a process of addition of 
virtues rather than subtraction of vices. 
Develop a man's better qualities or higher 
nature and just to that extent do you 
wage effective warfare on the evil in his 
life, which you would dislodge. Over- 
come evil with good. 

What is wrong for one man may not 
be wrong for another — " Be fully per- 
suaded in your own mind." 

If you ever expect to do any work, 
don't wait until you are perfect before 
you begin; "A man who never makes 
mistakes never makes anything else," 
while a sincere stumbler may still do 



64 Not in the Curriculum 

much for others. The more he does the 
less he will stumble. 

'* An idle soul shall suffer hunger." 

" Don't take your Christianity from 
other Christians." 

''Christianity consists not in being 
good, but in getting better." 

** Be ready always to give an answer 
to every man that asketh you a reason 
for the hope that is in you." 



XV 
PURITY 

" But where you feel your honor grip, 
Let that aye be your border ; 
Its slightest touches, instant pause ; 

Debar a' side pretenses, 
And resolutely keep its laws. 

Uncaring consequences." 

Life's most important strongholds are 
the ones most liable to attack. Fortify 
them accordingly. 

Strict purity in thought and life may 
not be altogether fashionable, but it is 
most decidedly essential for him who 
would not destroy the finer sensibilities 
and higher possibilities of his life. 

Purity is a never failing source of 
strength just as truly as impurity is an 
ever present source of weakness. 

Purity is not a thing which can be laid 
down and taken up at will. 

The purest things can become impure 
65 



66 Not in the Curriculum 

with the aid of a foul imagination. A 
good book may be read impurely — even 
the Bible can suggest impure thoughts 
to some minds. 

If impurity had a single redeeming 
feature, the world would have discovered 
it long ago. The record of every indir 
vidual or nation says plainly that it must 
be overcome or it will overcome. Give 
way to it and it will attack you with 
constantly increasing force which will 
finally become irresistible. Fight it half- 
heartedly and it will continually harass 
and defeat you. Face it squarely and con- 
quer it completely and the victory will 
make a man of you. 

One of the most effectual cures for any 
evil habit is an absorbing interest in 
something which tends away from that 
habit. Continual thought concerning the 
habit will only strengthen its hold. Hab- 
its of impurity are best supplanted (as 
far as human power goes) by the use of 
good sense to the extent of a cold bath 
every morning, hard regular exercise 
taken with a definite goal in mind, and 



Purity 67 

the exercise of a will made strong by 
constant use. 

Nature's laws with respect to the 
preservation of innate vitality are strict 
and unchangeable. Break any one of 
them and you must pay the penalty— 
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap." 

" My strength is as the strength of ten, 
Because my heart is pure." 

'*The thought is father to the deed." 
Don't think you can trifle with your 
thoughts and keep your life pure. There 
are a great many things that we are the 
better for not knowing. 

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 

You cannot prevent impure thoughts 
from coming into your head, but you can 
cast them out as soon as they come. 
" You cannot prevent the birds of the 
air from flying over your head, but you 
can prevent them from building their 
nests in your hair." 



XVI 
DEALING WITH DOUBT 

It is probable that before your four 
years of college are ended, you will enter 
upon, and, it is to be hoped, come out 
of, a period of religious doubt in which 
the things which you hold most dear and 
sacred will, as it were, suffer violence 
and you will be led to question not only 
their right to your reverence and obedi- 
ence but even their existence as concepts 
of truth. We say that it is likely that 
you may pass through such a period be- 
cause we believe that few college men 
are exempt from this experience. Every 
thoughtful, active-minded man has to 
face it in one form or another. 

To some men these experiences of 

doubt are the storms which wreck them 

on the shoals of scepticism and sin, but 

to many others they are the storms which 

68 



Dealing With Doubt 69 

develop the seamanship of the stout- 
hearted sailor and prove the seaworthi- 
ness of the ship. But they are storms in 
either case and the prudent thinker, like 
the prudent sailor, will not set forth on 
his voyage without preparing for the 
probability of meeting them and seeking 
the strength and the intellectual and 
moral seamanship which will enable him 
to ride them out. 

The first experience of doubt to some 
men is calamitous. The very thought of 
the possibility of losing hold on the 
things which they love so much produces 
a sort of stage-fright in which they lose 
their heads, break loose from all self- 
restraint, and either plunge into the ex- 
cesses of sin or lapse into a state of intel- 
lectual inebriety, wherein they see noth- 
ing as it really is and pride themselves on 
their indifference and ignorance. 

Frequently, if not usually, these men 
are of the emotionally religious type, 
whose faith comes from the heart rather 
than from the head as well. They think 
that the very fact of their doubting ren- 



yo Not in the Curriculum 

ders their condition hopeless. How fool- 
ish! A period of doubt is an experience 
which is perfectly natural in a growing 
man. It is entirely compatible with 
mental and moral development; in fact 
it is likely as not incident to this develop- 
ment. 

You can put it down as true that your 
''Mother's Knee" religion will not last 
through college in just the form in which 
it was given to you. That is nothing 
against either your mother or the religion 
she taught you. It was given you not 
merely to have and to hold, but to use 
and to unfold. Not that the college man 
has to throw away as false or useless 
those blessed truths which he cherishes 
in his heart as one of the priceless gifts 
of a mother's love. Probably most of 
the things she taught you are splendid 
maxims by which to regulate your career 
in college and after. But however much 
you love and respect your mother, you 
must take the things she told you and 
think them out for yourself, make them 
peculiarly your own, a vital part of your 



Dealing With Doubt 71 

religious consciousness, before they will 
suffice to restrain the passions and resist 
the temptations which, with hitherto un- 
experienced force, attack you and which 
you must overcome if you would become 
a strong man. You can't be a parasite in 
your beliefs, living entirely on the 
thoughts of others, and expect to be able 
to stand alone without falling. 

It may help you to see how natural it is 
that you should incur intellectual diffi- 
culties in your life, if you think of your 
intellectual growth as analogous to your 
physical growth. See how you have 
come out from your mother's care in your 
play, your work, in all your activities. 
Your mother used to buy your clothes for 
you and you had very little to say about 
what you wore. You wouldn't wear 
everything your mother might choose for 
you now, would you ? You have some- 
thing to say about it yourself, though 
you may consult your mother in such 
matters. And, further, you couldn't wear 
to-day the clothes you used to wear, even 
if they hadn't been worn out. They 



72 Not in the Curriculum 

wouldn't fit; they are too small. How 
easily we recognize these facts and yet 
we fail to recognize that we can no longer 
dress the thoughts and feelings of our 
grown-up consciousness in the swaddling 
clothes of infancy. We have needs now 
which we never dreamed of then, we 
have temptations now which we had, at 
most, only read about in those days, and 
we must choose garments becoming to 
these needs. The materials out of which 
they are made are the same. Your long 
trousers of to-day may have been cut 
from the same piece as your knicker- 
bockers of years ago. But the cut is dif- 
ferent. Perhaps, after all, the doubts 
which you will feel will be but "grow- 
ing pains" or the "lengthening of the 
trousers " of your faith. So you see it is 
natural for you to outgrow the primitive, 
narrow, partial ideas of your younger 
days and you must make them over into 
the broad, positive convictions of a ma- 
turer mind. Doubt is incident to growth. 
It is nothing to be proud of nor to be un- 
necessarily afraid of. But it is something 



Dealing With Doubt 73 

to be reckoned with and it is too danger- 
ous to be trifled with. 

Can we not find some of the reasons 
why men doubt ? We should not men- 
tion them all even if we knew them, be- 
lieving such an effort to be unprofitable 
labor, but it may be well to speak of 
two of them. First, then, some men 
doubt because they think doubting is a 
mark of strength. It shows independence 
and self-reliance to shrug the shoulders at 
the idea of positive faith in spiritual things 
which make for righteousness. They 
want to show their nerve, that they are 
not afraid to disagree with eminent men. 
This type of man fails to realize that, 
in one sense, it requires more strength to 
believe than to doubt, because, for awhile 
at least, doubt is merely a lazy indiffer- 
ence, while belief comes at the cost of a 
purposeful, constructive effort. A child 
may destroy with a kick what it has 
taken the greatest skill to construct. And 
what a poor sort of a man he must be 
who can find no better way of showing 
his independence than by trying to make 



74 Not in the Curriculum 

gray hairs seem ridiculous! We doubt 
if such men have courage enough to use 
it where they should. Some men of this 
sort do bad things conspicuously, just to 
show their fellows they are not afraid to. 
They have bravery enough to be bad but 
not courage enough to be good, so of 
course they choose the former, for it 
takes twice as much nerve and pluck to 
be consistently good in the face of temp- 
tation than to yield. And after all, this 
kind of doubt is largely an attitude. It 
is insincere, hypocritical, superficial. It 
is not the product of a troubled thinker, 
but rather of a shallow schemer for pop- 
ular favor. If he is honest, he abandons 
this sceptical attitude, disgusted with 
himself for having been so childish. 

Doubt not infrequently is related to per- 
sonal sin in the relation of effect and 
cause. It is an admitted fact that it is 
harder for a bad man to believe in truth, 
honor, purity and the like than for a good 
man. His deeds so bias his perspective, 
that he can't see clearly enough to hold 
adequate views or to reach warrantable 



Dealing With Doubt 75 

conclusions. Of course doubt may en- 
courage sin — when a man lets go of his 
faith in God and immortality and reduces 
morality from an obligation to a matter 
of taste, what is there to keep him from 
wandering from the straight and narrow 
path ! So one of the great dangers which 
doubt brings with it is that the victim 
impulsively plunges into the mire of sin 
and does to himself irreparable damage 
by its excesses which in their turn befud- 
dle his brains so that he is at a loss to 
find his way to solid ground. Doubt be- 
gets sin; sin stimulates doubt. Is it any 
wonder that we say doubt is dangerous ? 
It is not our purpose to throw any dis- 
paragement on honest doubt, for we be- 
lieve, as said above, that it is an incident 
to growth. It is an intellectual, or moral, 
or religious affection which lays hold on 
the healthiest minds and characters and 
no faith cure alone is sufficient remedy 
for it. It must be treated by each man 
personally; it is not just the same in any 
two of those whom it attacks. The 
man who cannot be cured of it deserves 



76 Not in the Curriculum 

sympathy, not censure, as does also the 
man with whom its relapses are chronic. 
But there are some general suggestions as 
to how to deal with it, that may be 
helpful. 

First of all, be honest in your doubts, 
honest in the sight of God. Don't say 
you disbelieve a thing till you are sure 
you do. Perfect honesty is rare, but it 
is invaluable. Be perfectly frank with 
yourself — don't fool yourself into believ- 
ing that you doubt. Don't mistake a 
dark dream for a real doubt. Don't 
overlook the difference between imag- 
ining that a thing may not be so, and be- 
ing sure that it is not so. 

Secondly, don't expect this process of 
making over your earlier ideas into larger 
and more becoming ones, as spoken of 
above, to be done in a day. You can't 
tell how long it will take. It may con- 
tinue all your life, though of course not 
with the same disturbing accompani- 
ments as in young manhood. So deal 
with your doubt patiently. If doubt is a 
process of growth, of course it is gradual. 



Dealing With Doubt 77 

Don't be too self-contained with regard 
to your troubles, is the third caution. 
Tell your troubles to some older man of 
your acquaintance, who understands you 
and in whose judgment you have confi- 
dence. He has probably undergone an 
experience similar to yours. Such men 
are found in the faculty of nearly every 
institution, or in the pulpits of the local 
churches. And in this connection have 
a care to choose as the man of your 
counsel one who has come through 
doubt with clear convictions and can 
help you to a satisfactory solution of 
your troubles on the side of positive, 
constructive, faith and conviction. By 
all means when you are wavering be- 
tween two opinions, don't listen to any 
man whose troubles have been too much 
for him and have left him derelict with 
nothing positive in his belief. You are 
not seeking an excuse for your doubt 
as such, but for a way out of it. You 
want to get on your feet again, and to 
go forward with clear ideas as to how 
and which way to walk. 



78 Not in the Curriculum 

The fourth point has been mentioned 
indirectly already. It is — don't throw 
yourself away while you are questioning 
what you are. There is no time when it 
is more necessary for you to live soberly 
and righteously than when you are bat- 
tling with doubt. Be good — just as good 
as you can be. Also, don't abandon 
your religious activities, or observances, 
because you are making inquiries about 
the things they stand for. Assuming 
your doubts to be religious, associate 
constantly with Christian men of the 
positive sort and, as Mr. Nolan Rice Best 
says in his helpful little book on The 
College Man in Doubt, strive to emulate 
the best among them. Associate with 
them especially in your religious exer- 
cises, Bible classes, mission work in 
the community or whatever those ex- 
ercises may be. Above all don't stop 
your private devotions. Pray God 
to help you through your difficul- 
ties. 

It is assumed, of course, that you will 
read not a little in your efforts to settle 



Dealing With Doubt 79 

your doubts. It is unnecessary to give a 
list of books for the college man in 
doubt. Not only is the list constantly 
growing, but your doubts are your own 
and it is better that you select your own 
books. The man whom we told you to 
consult in the paragraph above can, with- 
out doubt recommend to you the books 
you need. So can your college pastor, or 
minister, or Christian professor of phi- 
losophy, or the general secretary of your 
Young Men's Christian Association, or 
maybe the librarian of the college 
library. 

Just a few thoughts in conclusion. 
The loss of faith is never -a gain of any 
sort. There is no value in unbelief. It 
can never be a substitute for belief. 
Further, if you adopt the position of un- 
belief you are not free from doubt. Un- 
belief is, to say the least, no more cer- 
tain than belief. Robert Browning de- 
scribes a believer who assumes the 
position of an unbeliever for the 
sake of argument and who speaks 
thus — 



8o Not in the Curriculum 

" And now what are we ? Unbelievers both. 

Calm and complete, determinately fixed 

To-day, to-morrow, and forever, pray ? 

You'll guarantee me that ? Not so, I think ! 

In no wise ! All we've gained is, that belief, 

As unbelief before, shakes us by fits, 

Confounds us like its predecessor. Where's the 

gain? 
How can we guard our unbelief, 
Make it bear fruit to us ? — the problem here. 
Just when we're safest there's a sunset touch, 
A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, 
A chorus-ending from Euripides, 
And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears 
As old and new at once as nature's self, 
To rap and knock and enter in our soul. 
Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring. 
Round the ancient idol, on its base again, 
The grand Perhaps." 

Finally, my friend who is growing 
restless and discontented with his faith 
as it has been taught him from boyhood, 
remember that this question of doubt 
has a very personal side to it. It looks 
into your heart and asks is your belief 
voluntary or compulsory. Do you want 
to be good or are you good because you 
have to be ? Do you praise virtue for its 



Dealing With Doubt 8l 

own sake or for your sake; that is, be- 
cause people would think it very unusual 
if you didn't? Would you keep the 
commandments, especially the latter five, 
in a town where there were no police- 
men as in a city where there are ? So 
with your faith, which you have been 
taught to reverence and obey. Per- 
chance you doubt it. Are you glad 
when you think you have found a flaw 
in it? In other words, are you chafing 
under it, and are you sorry its ideals of 
living are so high ? If nobody would 
criticise you if you should profess to be- 
lieve in lying rather than truth and 
robbery rather than honesty, and you 
would suffer no inconvenient conse- 
quences therefrom, would you prefer 
and adopt that creed ? You will not be- 
lieve in that faith very long which you 
don't want to believe in. So be careful 
before you condemn your faith as 
worthless that in so doing you are not 
condemning yourself. Because you 
don't like it, is no guarantee that it is 
false. And, further, doubt asks you 



82 Not in the Curriculum 

what will you do with the truth when 
you learn it. Suppose it discloses for 
you a hard life, a strict set of principles, 
an unpopular position which you should 
take in certain questions, will you obey 
it ? This matter of doubt is not all intel- 
lectual speculation. "The truth shall 
set you free" — from the narrow limits of 
your own selfishness into the region of 
greatest service to God and man, into 
the realm of absolute honesty and truth. 

" What think ye of the Christ, friend ? 
When all's done and said. 
Like you this Christianity or not? 
It may be false, but will you wish it true ? 
Has it your vote to be so if it can ? " 

— Browning: 

This leads to the final word without 
which the chapter would not be logically 
complete. It is addressed especially to 
the man who is discarding his faith in 
Christianity. When the popularity of 
the founder of Christianity was be- 
ginning to wane and the multitudes 
were leaving Him, He turned to His 



Dealing With Doubt 83 

chosen twelve and said "Will ye also go 
away?" One of them replied, *' Lord, 
to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the 
words of eternal life." Are there not 
many men who never could have given 
that answer? If you go away from 
God and Jesus Christ, what are you go- 
ing to follow and what will you be- 
lieve ? The most ardent advocates of 
Christianity do not deny that it pre- 
sents difficulties for the believer. But 
what creed presents less difficulties ? 
You have to go somewhere; to whom 
will you go ? You have no logical or 
moral right to throw over your existing 
beliefs till you can substitute better ones. 
Materialism will not help you. Agnos- 
ticism will not help you. A loving, per- 
sonal, God will help you. "If any man 
willeth to do His will, he shall know of 
the teaching, whether it is of God or 
whether I speak of Myself." 



XVII 
A WORD AS TO DRUNKENNESS 

You will find, when you enter college, 
that there is considerable drunkenness in 
your college. What is your attitude 
going to be towards intoxicating drink ? 
This is a question which is purely per- 
sonal. You must decide it for yourself. 
You will make no mistake if you decide 
to abstain entirely from liquor as a 
beverage. If you have the right stuff in 
you, you will not lose anything by so 
doing, either in the way of fellowship or 
respect. Your influence for the better- 
ment of your fellows will increase. But 
don't take the narrow view that every 
man who '* drinks " is a hardened sinner, 
with no good traits and entirely unfit for 
your companionship. 

Don't criticise a man too severely for 
getting drunk. His sin may have been 
84 



A Word as to Drunkenness 85 

due to weakness rather than deliberate 
intention. On the other hand, don't let 
familiarity with the sight of drunkenness 
ever mitigate your contempt for its vul- 
garity or its wickedness, neither let the 
humorous actions of a "drunk" ever 
make you forget the dangers and conse- 
quences of the sin. Good fellowship 
and conviviality can never excuse drunk- 
enness. It is easy to *' drink " in college; 
*' drinking " in college certainly has some 
very attractive features. It has also some 
very coarse, disgusting and dangerous 
features. 

And, also, it is comparatively easy not 
to " drink " in college. You can do just 
as you choose in the matter. But a 
"drunk" is never respected anywhere. 
A truly sober man always is respected 
everywhere. This is a personal question 
which every man must decide for him- 
self, but be careful that your attitude 
does not cause a weaker friend to 
stumble. 



XVIII 
PROFANITY 

One of the commonest sins of college 
life is profanity. Few men become 
blasphemous in their profanity, but com- 
paratively few, also, refrain from the 
frequent use, or misuse, of such words as 
''damn "and *'hell." Those men who 
curse only occasionally seem to acknowl- 
edge by the infrequency of the sin, that 
they know it is wrong. But many others 
curse frequently, either because they 
think "profane bravado" indicates a 
kind of nerve in the eyes of their fellows, 
or because other fellows do, and the 
practice is so common that they don't 
stop to think about it. 

But before you adopt the practice, re- 
member this. It is useless. While it 
appears to be most emphatic, it is really 
meaningless, for it uses these monosyl- 
86 



Profanity 87 

lables in a perverted sense. There is no 
better way to ruin your vocabulary and 
prevent a good command of the English 
language than by profuse profanity. 
'Think of using " damn " as a synonym 
for every adjective and adverb in the 
whole range of verbal expression, and 
one word " hell " as the simile for every 
degree of heat and cold, light and dark- 
ness, goodness and iniquity, and what 
not! Profanity, like slang, cripples a 
man in the use of his mother-tongue. 

Also, as if this were not enough, you 
can destroy your sense of reverence for 
things sacred and holy in no easier way 
and by few other methods which will 
work more thoroughly. Taking these 
sacred words with their terrible mean- 
ings into the commonplace of every-day 
speech tends strongly to diminish your 
appreciation of the transcendent serious- 
ness of what they represent and of what 
they suggest. 

Remember also, that profanity in a 
man indicates a weakening of principle, 
a lowering of standards, a 'compromise 



88 Not in the Curriculum 

in your ideas of what is right and wrong 
for you, and it may be but a stage in a 
process of moral degeneration. The first 
slip of an anchor is often the most 
serious. A ball rolling down a grade 
gathers momentum as it goes, though its 
motion at first may have been almost 
imperceptible. 

Finally, profanity is so unnecessary. 
The man who has to guarantee every 
statement he makes with an oath or a 
bet, is not a man whose word is worth 
taking. You cheapen your reputation 
for truthfulness if you even seem to sug- 
gest that your word as your word is not 
trustworthy. Make men believe what 
you say, because you say it, not because 
you swear to it. 



XIX 
THE BIBLE IN COLLEGE LIFE 

There is no book with which you will 
have to do in college, which you can so 
ill afford to neglect, as the Bible. We 
base this statement not on its value and 
power as literature, though it is literature, 
a library of sixty-six classic works; nor 
on the fact that no man unfamiliar with 
it can claim to be a man of culture, 
though it is universally admitted that the 
Bible is a great educator. The late 
Charles A. Dana, the famous editor of 
the New York Sun, placed familiarity 
with the English Bible as a prime requi- 
site in the training for the profession of 
journalism. 

The Bible demands your attention on 

higher grounds than these. You cannot 

afford to neglect it, for it is the life-giving 

word from the Heavenly Father to the 

89 



^o Not in the Curriculum 

souls of men. There is no book in the 
world which can approach it in the power 
to save men from sin and to develop 
their characters in righteousness. Not 
only is it a book of profound moral 
teaching, but it is a book of spiritual 
power. Its own credentials may be 
read on its pages by every reverent in- 
quirer and humble searcher after truth 
who reads its message. It breathes forth 
the Spirit of God, the vitalizing force 
which makes for everything that is best 
in this world, the things which men 
everywhere admire as manly, and rever- 
ence as godly. Do not expect your life 
to be marked by many distinguishing 
traits of noble character if you do not 
bring the power which pulses in the 
pages of God's word to bear directly on 
your life. Read it daily, study it daily. 
Meditate over it. Memorize many of its 
finest passages. Saturate your vocabu- 
lary with its language, your character 
with its precepts, and most of all, your 
life with its spirit. 
The fascinating and absorbing routine 



The Bible in College Life 91 

of college life will tend to crowd this 
Book into an obscure place in your 
schedule, or to abbreviate very much the 
time you will devote to the study of the 
Scriptures. A few simple cautions may 
help you to resist this tendency. 

First of all, resolve to devote some time 
each day to read and study the Bible. If 
necessary, appoint a fixed time and con- 
sider it an engagement, just as you re- 
gard any of the class-room appointments 
on your schedule. But be sure you choose 
a time when you can bring to your Bible 
a fresh mind and when you can study in 
quiet peacefulness without hurry. 

Secondly, study the parts of the Bible 
which interest you most. The more 
comprehensive your knowledge of the 
Bible, the better, but if you find Ezekiel 
obscure, and Leviticus dry, do not feel 
that you are conscience-bound to study 
these books now. The motive of all 
Bible-study should be practical, and if 
the songs of the Psalter, or, more prob- 
ably, the story of the Master's life, finds 
a deeper response in your soul, search 



92 Not in the Curriculum 

for the truth for your life in these books. 
In your secular reading, you choose 
books according to your taste. If you 
prefer poetry to history or orations, you 
read Burns or Tennyson rather than Gib- 
bon and Burke. Adopt the same princi- 
ples in your reading in the Bible. 

Thirdly, map out for yourself a course 
of study. Perhaps you choose to read 
the Gospels through and will take a 
chapter a day till you finish them. Or 
perhaps you may choose to study the 
Gospels synthetically or from some har- 
mony of them. Again, you may find it 
more interesting to take up the books of 
the New Testament in their chronological 
order of composition, ascertaining the 
purpose, plan and contents of each. 
These schemes — and there are many 
others — suggest how you may make 
your work consecutive and continuous. 
When you are following a course thus, 
you will find it easier to be regular in 
your habits of Bible-study. 

And lastly, it will undoubtedly be help- 
ful to you to join with others in this 



The Bible in College Life 93 

study of the Bible. The courses offered 
by the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion of your college are designed espe- 
cially for just such busy men as you who 
find it hard to study the Bible each day. 
They provide for daily study, facilitate it, 
and insist on it. And the classes afford 
you that help which comes from fellow- 
ship and the interchange of ideas. But 
if you don't care to join a class in the As- 
sociation, get one or two of your most 
intimate friends to study some course in 
the Bible with you. Some of the most 
profitable Bible-study done in a certain 
university, where the writer was an un- 
dergraduate, was done by groups of from 
two to five intimate friends who met every 
morning in the Christian Association 
building for a short season of earnest, 
prayerful communion with God over the 
pages of their open Bibles. Only be care- 
ful that no man is admitted to such a group 
unless he is intimate with every man in it. 
There must be no reticence in such 
groups, and no feelings which are not in 
absolute accord with the Book you are 



94 Not in the Curriculum 

studying. There must be no deadening 
formality in your search for fundamental 
truth. Any superficiality or insincerity 
in your relationships one to the other, 
will tend to make the Bible truth of no 
avail to your hearts. 

There are some other things to be ob- 
served beside regularity in your study of 
the Bible. The place where you study 
has a direct bearing on the effectiveness 
of the study. The quality of the study 
you put on your Bible is important. 
Some men have complained that their 
Bible study was wasted time, and won- 
dered how other men secured the profit 
therefrom, which they both heard these 
men testify to, and saw in their develop- 
ing characters. Not infrequently, the 
trouble lay in the partial or superficial or 
perfunctory character of their study. 
Most important of all is the spirit in which 
you study the Bible. 

The chief consideration in choosing a 
place for your study, is privacy. You 
can't do very satisfactory work with the 
Bible when your roommate is whistling 



The Bible in College Life 95 

some popular air or reading with audible 
comments the morning paper, but a few 
feet from where you are trying to shut 
yourself up to the Bible and its spiritual 
truth. Nor can you do good study when 
you are always in danger of interruption. 
If possible, find some private place, 
where you will not be interrupted. The 
rooms or buildings of the college Chris- 
tian Associations generally offer such a 
place. Maybe your room is private 
enough and you are not interrupted 
therein. If so, so much the better. 

In studying the Bible, be thorough. 
This does not necessarily mean that your 
study must be exhaustive. Do as much 
work as the time you give to your Bible 
daily allows, but do that work well. 
Don't feel that you must find an explana- 
tion for all the things you read which 
seem strange to you. Many of them will 
straighten themselves out in your mind 
as you learn more and your mind ma- 
tures. But don't allow your study to de- 
generate into a cold, formal, purely in- 
tellectual reading of words. Study the 



96 Not in the Curriculum 

Bible as you are taught to study any other 
book. Learn what it says, so that you 
know it and could pass an examination 
on it, if necessary. Penetrate into the 
inner meaning of the text. When con- 
secutive passages seem to you to be with- 
out logical connection, such passages as 
John 3: 2 and 3, and John 12: 22 and 2}, 
study to find out the connection. 

Make your study scientific; learn the 
facts and then interpret them. When 
you read that Jesus withdrew to spend 
all night in prayer, ask yourself why, and 
for what He prayed. Don't use so-called 
Bible helps too much; learn to walk in 
your Bible without crutches, though you 
may stumble in places. You are seeking 
vitalizing power, rather than scholarly 
accuracy, important though the latter 
may be. But you cannot get vitalizing 
power by doing slovenly work. Be 
thorough. 

Though you will do well to treat the 
Bible very much as you treat other simi- 
lar books, remember that it is greater 
than all the others put together. So study 



The Bible in College Life 97 

it reverently, as the Word of God de- 
serves. Do not be unnecessarily critical 
of it. The Lord is the rewarder of those 
that seek Him with diligence, not with 
derision. 

Finally, make your study devotional. 
By this we mean, take the truth you 
study and apply it to your own life. 
Ponder over it; ask yourself how much 
of it you can find in your own life. 
Precede each period of study with a 
prayer. Perhaps you can't do better 
than to adopt the eighteenth verse of the 
119th Psalm. Close your period of 
study with a prayer to God that He will 
help you to improve your life as the 
lesson for the day has suggested. Be 
careful lest your prayers become foggy, 
so that neither you nor God can be quite 
sure therefrom what you want. But pray 
definitely for some concrete thing. 

In this connection, have definite de- 
ductions from your study with regard to 
your character. Don't let your medita- 
tions become the vague, impractical as- 
pirations of an idle dreamer; rather make 



gS Not in the Curriculum 

them the positive deliberations of a man 
who covets strength of character, purity, 
courage, honor and love, and who wants 
to be delivered from meanness, dirtiness, 
cowardice and insincerity, and who is 
communing with his God as to how he 
may attain to these desires. No " wishy- 
washy" sentimentality or piety of the 
*' goody-goody " kind has any place in 
the life and study of the strong men to 
whom the King of Kings entrusts the 
keeping of His Kingdom. 

Lest any of you think that daily devo- 
tions are incompatible with manliness, a 
final paragraph must try to show that 
you are wrong. The catalogue of great 
men, from Moses down, who have 
gained their greatness from the Law of 
God, is too large to be recorded here. 
You probably know of such men — 
General Gordon, Lincoln, Livingstone, 
and others — and need not to be reminded 
of them. But you may not know that 
there are strong, manly men in prac- 
tically all our colleges who are daily 
Studying the Bible. If you will mingle 



The Bible in College Life 99 

with the Christian men in your college, 
you will find them. 

On nearly every athletic team which 
represents one of our larger universities 
you will find some of them. The ''All- 
American " Baseball Nine of a few years 
ago had three of them from three dif- 
ferent institutions. The groups of men 
referred to a few pages back contained 
two of these athletes of the university 
teams and also some of the men who 
led their class intellectually, morally or 
socially. 

Among the manliest men of your col- 
lege, unless it is very different from those 
the writer knows, you will find also 
those who are striving after godliness 
also. They study their Bibles not in any 
ostentatious way, perhaps so privately 
that only their bosom friends know 
when they do it; not because they con- 
sider it an act of piety, but as an aid to 
piety and because it feeds their souls. 
Follow their example, as you enter upon 
your college course. Seek for the truth 
and when you find it, determine that 



^■cfc 



100 Not in the Cuniculum 

you will live up to it, cost what it may. 
You will forfeit nothing that you can't 
afford to lose. You wiL gain for your 
character that priceless virtue — absolute 
honesty. 

Remember this also. The study of 
the Bible is not an end in itself. The 
Scriptures point to Christ, they reveal 
Him. It is not enough to be familiar 
with the Bible, however profitable and 
laudable that may be Familiarity with 
the Bible derives its greatest value from 
the fact that it is the prerequisite to be- 
lieving and obeying its message, to ac- 
cepting Him of whom it tells. '* Ye 
search the Scriptures," He said, ** be- 
cause ye think that in them ye have 
eternal life, and these are they which 
bear witness of Me; and ye will not 
come unto Me, that ye m^ght have life." 

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